It is difficult to estimate the harm done to creatures under water. Blasts to ships, exploding rockets, fuel leaks, mines, drones, and sonar end up harming wildlife in ways we cannot easily see. What we can see are corpses washing up on shore, something that has happened at a much higher rate since the recent full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a speech in November 2022, when the war was still young, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that 50,000 Black Sea dolphins had died as a result of Russia’s aggression.

There is a lot of research available on how losses this dramatic could happen. Since a mass stranding in 2000, the US Navy has understood that its peacetime drills have cost many marine mammals their lives. As it turns out, sonar used by Navies isn’t the nice little blip we see in movies, the sound may reach as high as 235 decibels. The Who once infamously held the record for loudest concert, but this was a measly 126 decibels. Arrowhead Stadium, home to the Kansas City Chiefs, holds the record for loudest stadium, where some 80,000 fans yelled and reached only 142.2 decibels. So beating that by 65% is no joke, and marine mammals certainly aren’t laughing.

The impact of sonar can be so strong that whales have been documented swimming hundreds of miles, beaching themselves, or diving so fast that blood vessels rupture in their ears. In January 2005, during US Navy sonar training off the coast of North Carolina, 34 whales of three different species became stranded and died. A 2012 study by the US Navy estimated the coming years would see 1,600 instances of hearing loss or other injuries to marine mammals from sonar and 200 deaths due to explosives each year. The Russian Navy is no exception in its conduct in the Black Sea, and war has made it much worse.

There are three species of Black Sea cetaceans, dolphins and whales: The common dolphin (Delphinus delphis ponticus), the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ponticus), and the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena relicta). Each one of these is considered unique to the Black Sea, a subspecies significantly different from cousins of the Mediterranean and beyond. The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS), a legal agreement between 24 countries (including Ukraine, but not Russia) to protect cetaceans, reported in 2019 an estimated 253,000 Black Sea cetaceans. For each species, the numbers were 118,328 common dolphins, 94,219 harbour porpoises, and 72,369 bottlenose dolphins. Unfortunately, those numbers have changed for the worse.

According to one researcher covering roughly 3 miles of Ukrainian coastline far from the fighting, in a few months of war he found 35 dead cetaceans instead of 3 or 4 for an entire year. Even in Romania, scientists were reporting double the number of dead cetaceans. In the first three months of war, there were a 2,500 known documented strandings (this did not include areas of Russian control), and since most dead cetaceans simply sink, scientists estimated 37,500 to 48,000 dead. More than half a year later, these numbers lead Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to state that the Russian war had caused 50,000 Black Sea dolphins to perish. If there were 253,000 alive before the war, then the Black Sea saw about a 25% loss of its cetacean population in a few months. And the war continues.

On the bright side, the Russian Navy did lose a submarine in the conflict as well as many large boats, but getting blowing them up and/or sinking them likely cost the wildlife as well.